When you’re in search of the world’s best marine wilderness encounters, you need a ship-based platform for exploring. And that’s where our partner Lindblad Expeditions comes in.
Focused solely on small-ship expedition cruising since 1979, Lindblad gets you closest to wild nature at sea, with outstanding naturalist guides and exploratory modes, from kayaks and snorkeling to remote underwater cameras. And the great news is, there’s last-minute space available on several expeditions early in 2023!
Imagine yourself in Antarctica…this winter! There’s still room on select departures of Journey to Antarctica: The White Continent aboard the 148-passenger National Geographic Explorer. It’s the austral summer, and you’ll soak up near-24-hour daylight as you cruise among colossal icebergs and share the pristine polar wilderness with seals, orcas, whales and huge penguin colonies—this is the season to watch fuzzy hatchlings growing up.
In the world’s last great wilderness, the solitude is broken only by its teeming wildlife. Hear the cacophony as you walk among thousands of penguins, watch seals sun on drifting icebergs and whales leap off the bow.
Lindblad has been taking explorers to Antarctica for more than 50 years. No one has more experience. You’ll travel with top experts including polar naturalists, zoologists, marine biologists, undersea specialists and National Geographic photographers.
Travelers hiking in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica.
Prefer your winter voyage in warmer climes? Explore Costa Rica & the Panama Canal from the National Geographic Quest. Go ashore to discover rain forest wildlife in remote national parks, looking for sloths, white-faced capuchins, scarlet macaws, toucans, blue morpho butterflies, and much more. As you transit the Panama Canal, stop en route at Barro Colorado Nature Monument to explore with guides from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
Lindblad guests in Zodiacs with an adult California Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus) in Magdalena Bay near Puerto Lopez Mateos on the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Each winter thousands of California gray whales migrate from the Bering and Chuckchi seas to breed and calf in the warm water lagoons of Baja. This is the furthest south of the three major such lagoons.
If you’re passionate about marine life, you’ll be forever spoiled for whale watching when you join Lindblad Among the Great Whales, a Baja expedition aboard the National Geographic Venture that takes place in January and February. Giant gray whales spend the winter in the warm lagoons of Mexico, birthing and nurturing their young before migrating north to Alaska later in the spring. Curious, playful, and friendly, they often approach our Zodiacs for close-up views and mutual curiosity.
There’s no place on the planet with more prolific and varied whale sightings than Baja. On this whale-focused expedition you may come within an arm’s length of a 30-ton gray whale—surely one of life’s greatest thrills! On excursions by Zodiac, kayak and on foot, explore mangroves, comb pristine beaches covered with tiny shells, and wander coastal dunes. Plus, we’ll venture into the Sea of Cortez on this uncommon journey that gives us a rare chance to search for even bigger whales—blue whales, the largest creature ever to live on Earth!
It’s a rare opportunity to be able to book a Lindblad trip this close to departure. Choose the winter adventure that animates you, and look forward to a peerless nature immersion.
